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on January 11, 2022 by Drew Kramer in Marketplaces, Technology & Data

How to Advertise on Amazon: A Guide for 2022

Advertising is a tricky thing — part science and part art — and even trickier when it comes to Amazon. The marketplace is crowded, competition for digital shelf space is fierce, and figuring out how, what, where, and when to purchase advertising is … well, confusing. But with 3 out of 4 customers using Amazon to discover new products and brands, and off-platform ad options continuing to expand, it’s undeniable that advertising with Amazon is critical to success. "3 out of 4 customers use Amazon to discover new products and brands"

If you’re wondering: How do I advertise on streaming TV? What is the Amazon DSP? How do I know where to spend on Amazon search advertising? Or, do I really need an Amazon ad agency to do all this?  We’re here to break it down for you with our 2022 guide to Amazon advertising. 

What are Amazon Ads?

Amazon has grown to become the world’s second-largest search engine and the largest for ecommerce. With the attention of so many online shoppers, the ecommerce giant has made several digital advertising options available to brands, from Amazon paid search advertising to display, video, and even customized advertising solutions (like on-box advertisements). 

Types of Amazon Ads

  • Sponsored Products: Ads for individual products that appear in Amazon search results, as well as on product detail pages 
  • Sponsored Brands: Banner-style ads that appear in Amazon search results, featuring your brand’s logo and custom headline 
  • Sponsored Display: Ads that appear not only on Amazon, but also on third-party sites 
  • Amazon DSP: A demand-side platform that allows advertisers to programmatically purchase and optimize display, video and audio ads on Amazon and certain third-party sites (For more information, see WBX Commerce’s deep dive into Amazon DSP.)
  • Streaming ads (or OTT ads): Ads that display on streaming platforms alongside video content 
  • Video ads: Videos that appear in search results on Amazon, as well as on apps and alongside other web content
  • Audio ads: Ads that play between songs on the free tier of Amazon Music 
  • Custom ads: These ads include unique placements like on Fire TV and Amazon boxes.

How Amazon Ads Work

We live in an attention economy, so capturing customer attention at each stage of the buying journey is critical for brand success. Amazon Ads are designed to do exactly that: capture attention where it matters most. These advertisements appear to relevant consumers as they shop, get entertainment and news, and browse online. When used strategically, Amazon Ads can reach consumers at multiple touchpoints and across all devices. 

Display, Video and Streaming TV Advertisements: Beginning at the top of the advertising funnel — also known as the awareness stage — display, video and streaming TV ads appear both on and off Amazon. These ads leverage product and audience targeting to appear to relevant shoppers.

Search-based Advertisements: Moving further down the advertising funnel to the consideration stage, Amazon search advertisements appear at the top of relevant search results. These products or brands have a subtle “sponsored” tag and include the ad types listed above. 

For a full breakdown into how sponsored ads work, check out How Amazon Marketing Services Ads Work.

Optimizing Your Amazon Ads

Once you develop a robust advertising strategy, it’s time to nurture and maintain your ads like the houseplants you so adore. (You can’t set it and forget it. Think of your favorite fern!) 

Data, data, data — oh, and did we mention data? It’s crucial to a successful and competitive Amazon advertising strategy. Ecommerce data can be overwhelming, disjointed, and at times, difficult to interpret. At WBX Commerce, our Amazon marketing services team is versed in the art and science of Amazon Ads. Our team pairs their industry experience with our proprietary intelligence tool, WBX Insights, for a comprehensive view of a brand’s ecommerce data. WBX Insights provides a centralized, wide-ranging data set across channels, including sales, search term, and ad performance, as well as customer demographics and purchase behavior. Using this tool, our team of certified Amazon Advertising specialists analyzes Amazon data, including data from Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), to map your customers’ journeys and determine the most profitable placements for ads — whether on platform or off. To put it in real-life terms, AMC data allows us to see how many customers were served a streaming TV ad (building that brand awareness!) and ultimately made a purchase through a Sponsored Product ad. 

What’s more? WBX Commerce offers warehousing and fulfillment options for brands, which provide valuable data to inform advertising decisions. Brands that utilize WBX Commerce’s fulfillment and logistics services can partner with us to create and test multi-packs, variety packs and new product configurations on product listings. WBX Commerce’s Amazon marketing services team runs Amazon search advertising campaigns that enable brands to gauge consumer interest and better plan for demand before devoting budget toward new configurations. Our team uses WBX Insights to help you identify these new bundle opportunities using Amazon Market Basket Data, and is equipped to create new product listings in real-time. 

Brands that partner with WBX Commerce for their Amazon advertising see an average of 15% monthly growth in their Amazon business.

Getting Started with Amazon Advertising, and Why You Might Need an Amazon Marketing Agency

You’ve got an amazing product catalog, a strong brand, and you’re ready to win the Buy Box on Amazon. But how exactly do you begin?

  • Step 1: Identify your advertising goals in order to develop a strategic plan.
  • Step 2: Research the keywords and audiences that you want to test.
  • Step 3: Ensure proper coverage of available impressions by utilizing Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, brand video and display advertisements.
  • Step 4: As you continue to scale your Amazon search advertising efforts, identify the right inflection point to extend your strategy further up the advertising funnel through Amazon DSP.
  • Step 5: Constantly measure your ad performance and test new tactics in order to hit your goals.

Sound like a lot of work? It is. That’s why some brands find value in partnering with an Amazon ad agency like WBX Commerce to take the headache out of Amazon advertising. Remember: Amazon advertising is anything but a set-it-and-forget-it process. In order to grow sales, brands must constantly make sure their products stand out, adjust pricing to remain competitive and optimize ads to get the most bang for their advertising buck. Digital advertising best practices are always changing, so it can be beneficial to have an agency help you stay on top of these shifts and continue to fine-tune your brand’s presence. Considering partnering with a certified Amazon ad agency? Here are five questions you should ask yourself when deciding. 

Whether your brand is equipped with an in-house team or prefers a full-service ecommerce agency, WBX Commerce can help. For those with in-house expertise, WBX Commerce can complement your existing search strategy with additional display, video and OTT (over-the-top) ads via Amazon DSP. Additionally, our data scientists can give you transparent insights from our WBX Insights technology to optimize your existing search-based ads and execute a powerful Amazon DSP strategy.

Results You Can Count On From Amazon Advertising

By now it should be clear that strategic advertising on Amazon is essential for brands that want to make the most of this mammoth marketplace. Here are some bite-sized stats to show how Amazon Ads can grow your business:

  • WBX Commerce data indicates that successful advertising on Amazon drives 60% of total growth in the marketplace. "Using Amazon streaming tv ads increased purchase rates by 90%"
  • Data shows that brands using Sponsored Products ads see an average 40% lift in weekly units ordered.
  • When brands run advertisements on Amazon DSP alongside Amazon paid search advertising, our data shows that conversion rates are four times higher than a search-based strategy alone.
  • Using Amazon Streaming TV ads increases purchase rates by 90%.
  • Sponsored Display ads cause up to 82% of sales to be driven by new-to-brand customers.

Recently, WBX Commerce helped launch Ricola’s Amazon business with a 57% year-over-year increase in sales. Ready to see what WBX Commerce can do for your business? Contact us today!

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